Last of the Trawler Men

Reuters photographer, Dylan Martinez, recently spent a few days in the once-busy fishing port of Whitby. Now just 200 people are employed in fishing; the fleet is down to only a few boats. Things aren't looking good for Locker - one of the last remaining trawler men in the area. A combination of crippling fishing quotas, climate change and overfishing has all but crushed the local fishing industry. Global warming has expanded fish habitats northward, causing fish stocks to sometimes disappear for weeks on end. Boats return from sea with largely empty nets, and the atmosphere, dour. Often schools of fish then reappear unpredictably, resulting in bumper catches and jubilation - then E.U. quotas take effect and force fishermen to dump excess catch in the sea to avoid hefty E.U. fines. This scenario is echoed in other historic fishing areas across the globe, including New England. -- Paula Nelson A seagull flies off the coast of Whitby, seen from aboard the Whitby Rose in the North Sea, northern England, February 28, 2013. Whitby was once a busy fishing port, but now only 200 people are employed in the fishing industry. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)